Chief Judge Rowan Wilson presents the State of the Judiciary at the Court of Appeals on Tuesday, February 27, 2024 in Albany, NY. Photo: David Handschuh/OCA Chief Judge Rowan Wilson presents the State of the Judiciary at the Court of Appeals on Tuesday, Feb. 27 in Albany, N.Y. Photo: David Handschuh/OCA
New York Chief Judge Rowan Wilson's state of the judiciary on Tuesday veered away from the typical, with the state's top judge sharing the stage with others as he highlighted his desire to transform the system from one in which the dominant paradigm is only to determine right and wrong. Wilson said he believes the courts should instead be focused on arriving "at the best solution for each individual situation." He acknowledged that this focus, along with other components of the nearly two-hour address, could be considered "unorthodox." Wilson, who joined the Court of Appeals in 2017 as an associate, and during a dramatic turn of events last year was elevated to the state's top judge by Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Democratic supermajority in the legislature, yielded time for Hochul to speak about the courts. He conceded that this was also unusual. Wilson's speech wasn't necessarily an annual review of how well the courts are doing, and how much improvement there'd been the past year. "If you want that data," he quipped, "get a copy of the report that no one reads." Instead, he allowed fellow judges and attorneys, a court officer and program participants who've benefited from having their cases adjudicated through so-called problem-solving courts, to share the microphone. Among those given time to speak were Albany County Court Judge Andra Ackerman and the first graduate of the Albany County Court felony U-CAN (United Against Crime Community Action Network) diversion program. Ackerman began the program in 2016 when she was a Cohoes City Court Judge, for misdemeanor defendants. It was after she noticed a pattern of young adults committing "an escalating series of misdemeanors and inching closer to committing felony crimes." She said most of the defendants had dropped out of high school or were on the verge of being expelled and lived in poverty. Most had a parent who was completely out of the picture, and in some cases, that other parent was emotionally unavailable due to substance abuse or mental ailments. "They were on the fringe of going to prison or going to the cemetery; that was my fear," Ackerman said, adding that she could relate to them because Ackerman never met her father, her mother was an abusive alcoholic, and she lived with three foster families and an apartment with her sister prior to her 18th birthday. Ackerman said the defendants reminded her of her sister and herself, and at that time, she realized that she was able to progress to becoming a lawyer and judge because of important mentors. Ackerman said the program, which has the defendant plead guilty and go on probation for a year, with sentencing deterred for a year of tough love and support and structure with participation for the judge, prosecutor, defense attorney, and the probation department. It requires the defendant to meet weekly with a volunteer mentor, hold a job and have a good-faith basis going forward of attaining their educational equivalency diploma if they haven't finished school. At the end of the year, the misdemeanor charges were dismissed and the defendant leaves with a clean slate. Ackerman said the Cohoes program had a success rate of 80% and has been replicated in other state courts. But she said that when she took the Albany County Court bench in 2020, she wasn't sure if U-CAN would work because of the felony cases involving gun possession charges "where the risks were high." But then Anthony Garcia's case came before her. He had been arrested by a state trooper in 2019 after a gun was found in his vehicle. The judge said she felt Garcia was worth the risk because he didn't have prior arrests or known gang connections. His performance in U-CAN was "so perfect that the DAs office who initially wanted them to keep a felony and initially had offered two years of state prison, allowed him to withdraw that felony plea and accept a misdemeanor," Ackerman said. Garcia, now a lance corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps, said he viewed the program as "my second chance at life." Wilson reacted: "It is easy, through institutional indifference, to allow a life to waste. It is much harder to nurture a life in trouble." In another vignette that resulted in a happy ending, Wilson referenced an email he received in December from longtime family court lawyer Brian Zimmerman. It was about a Kings County court officer who had offered kindness to three children Zimmerman represented. Zimmerman said the case was "deeply" touching, involving a family with a history in the court. Discord between one teenager and her parents led the family back to court. During the December hearing, the siblings had hoped that the court would arrive at a decision, but the judge did not announce it that day, resulting in one of the children, a teen, reaching a "breaking point." Zimmerman described how the children's family life, school friendships and education, had been disrupted for nearly a week. Zimmerman said he asked Court Officer Steven Byrd to talk to the children, whose kindness helped the three children hold on for another day. Byrd said he told the children that the "team" involved in their case was committed to helping their family, and he stressed that "what they were doing was amazing." "I encouraged them to stay focused and let nothing deter them from their goals, their dreams; because storms are going to come, but given time, they will eventually pass, and the love of their family would remain strong." Byrd, who said his late sister Wanda and his wife Shanée had also served as court officers, said he also asked the children if he could pray for them, and they agreed. During opening remarks, Hochul thanked Wilson for "helping us rethink the possibilities in the judiciary." Hochul, who spoke of her commitment to diversifying the bench through her appointments, and her adding of 40 positions across the state to address case backlogs, said she's "staunchly defended" the independence of courts and vetoed legislation that she viewed as interfering with courts self-governance. Meanwhile, Wilson did reference one data point during his closing, noting that even if the judiciary budget request for 2025 is fully granted, its operating budget will be 10% lower than what it was in 2012 on an inflation-adjusted basis. "Due to past fiscal crises and accompanying budget cuts, the courts have been forced to make do with less," he said. "With greater resources—not just for the courts themselves, but for the attorneys and ancillary providers vital to treating troubled New Yorkers with professionalism, care and compassion—I am confident that we can find ourselves overflowing in happy endings."